LG G8 ThinQ's OLED Display to Double Up as a Speaker

The LG G8 will have an OLED screen at last (inexplicably, all of LG's flagships have had inferior LCD displays while LG is the leading OLED panel manufacturer in the planet). LG has cleared that up, explaining that the G8 will be capable of 2-channel audio using both the screen and secondary speaker. Samsung demoed its sound-on-display technology a few months ago, but it's unclear whether the technology will be used on the Galaxy S10. However, when using the speaker mode, the sound will come from the bottom speaker.

It's admittedly interesting that LG would use a feature often associated with no bezels or even no speakers but still retain those parts that some consider to be essential to the smartphone experience.

At MWC 2019, LG Electronics (LG) will remind audiences of its reputation and history as a leader in smartphone sound with the new LG G8 ThinQ featuring Crystal Sound OLED (CSO), an innovative technology that utilizes the phone's OLED display as an audio amplifier.

The issue is that up till today LG hadn't managed to deliver a device that didn't have some picture quality issues all while delivering competitive power efficiency. Curiously, LG's Crystal Sound OLED doesn't have the same design requirements, given the LG G8 ThinQ's expected notch. LG first demonstrated the CSO technology on an OLED TV at CES 2017.

"Developed in-house by LG, CSO repurposes the OLED display as a diaphragm, vibrating the entire surface to produce sound with impressive volume", reads an excerpt of the post. The dedicated Google Assistant button that was on the side of the LG G7 ThinQ appears to be making a return on the G8, too, along with the typical volume and power/lock keys.